Vitali Klitschko, Nikolai Valuev Hoping To Reach Terms

By Andrey Krikunov

WBC heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko still hopes that the team of Nikolai Valuev will accept his offer. The Ukrainian boxer believes that the deal can be reached in several days and compares the situation with his bout with Lennox Lewis.

“Then we signed up the contract in 2 days”, - says Klitschko in Blik newspaper interview. – “Besides I hadn’t been preparing for this bout at all. The offer to face Lewis came 10 days before the actual fight and I agreed at once. I knew that was my chance and I meant to take it. The money wasn’t important for me then. I didn’t bargain. Every boxer in heavyweight division dreams to fight for the world title. And every boxer does whatever he can to get this chance. But wait, not every boxer. Some of them, having lost the champion’s belt, begin to play games and try to bargain with me, asking for incredible amounts of money".

Nikolay Valuev expressed his point of view on the situation in the interview to Ruslife.eu. “We continue our negotiations with Vitali Klitschko”, - the Russian told. - “Klitschko knows perfectly well what our conditions are. But it is inappropriate for him to present himself as a kind of benefactor. He tries to convince everybody that he is a victim, telling that they've made me a decent offer but I’ve turned it down. At the same time Klitschko in his interviews forgets to mention his own reward for a fight. He understands that the interest from the television networks towards that bout will be huge”.

Valuev thinks that even if the negotiations won’t be successfull now, the parties can make this bout happen later. “If we don’t come to an agreement now, we can make this fight later when I’ll already be in a position of the official title contender", - says the boxer. – “I can choose this path. For that I’ll have to fight in the eliminator bout for the official WBC contender status. Such alternative is quite possible”.

[QUOTE=Dave Rado;7660714]Those figures can't be right, because Vitali said no to 60/40. Given he's willing to offer $2.5 million, but he's [B]not [/B]willing to offer 60/40, the total purse must be well in excess of $6.25 million.
Also, Valuev-Vitali isn't…

[QUOTE=Pirao;7660472]Valuev would not get more money if he was a mandatory, in fact he would probably get less. Vitali reportedly made 22 million euros last year, but most of that is endorsement and the cut from TV commercials. Let's say…